August the ThirtyFirst
by Carnivalgirl
Summary: DH SPOILERS! Fluffy nextgen fic starring Rose and Hugo Weasley, along with their parents of course. Rose is feeling nervous and sad about going to Hogwarts, can a joint Weasley effort make her feel better? Of course it can! RLHG, because they're married.


**A/N:** I know I don't normally write Ron/Hermione, but I just love the idea of Rose and Hugo. I think they'd be so adorable. Apart from the canon names and Simona and Philip, the various Weasley cousins are named after various cousins of my own, many of whom also have typically English names.

It was getting towards the evening of August the thirty-first, and Rose Weasley was feeling very nervous. Tomorrow, she would be going to Hogwarts, and her life would change forever. She would be leaving her mum and dad for...weeks. She had never left them for more than a week before, and that was to go and visit her cousin Simona Weasley in Romania. Uncle Charlie was so much like Dad that it wasn't that different from home, even if it was in a different country. Alone in her bedroom (of course, tomorrow she'd be sleeping in a room with several other girls) she repeated what her parents had assured her about. She'd get into Gryffindor. She did know people there...her cousin Victoire (Uncle Bill and Auntie Fleur's daughter) was going into the top year, cousin Fred was in fourth and Laura in second, they were Uncle George and Auntie Verity's children, and there was James going into third, and Al was starting too. He'd be her friend, she could count on him. He was practically born to be Gryffindor, and her too.

Rose didn't know why she was so eager to be in Gryffindor, perhaps it was a family thing. Her mum had told her that the other three houses had also produced wonderful people, and Dad had assured her that there was no shame in being the first Weasley in several generations to get into another house. Hugo was always chanting that mantra ignorant wizarding children believed about Hogwarts; "_Gryffindor's for heroes, Slytherin's for sneaks, Hufflepuff's for idiots and Ravenclaw's for geeks_." As such, he believed she was destined for Ravenclaw and him for Gryffindor. Though if she believed along the same lines Hugo was a definite Hufflepuff, she would miss him, though not as much as Mum and Dad.

"Rosie!" her dad, Ron Weasley, called from downstairs. "Dinner time!"

Fighting back tears as she realised it was the last time they would all have dinner together, she ran downstairs, and gave her dad a hug when she saw him in the doorframe. He laughed, and put a hand on her back.

"Blimey, you're not normally this affectionate." he said. She looked up at him mournfully, and he laughed again, exasperatedly. "Oh, you've haven't started already! Come on, cheer up, Granny and Granddad have just arrived and they haven't seen you yet." He walked Rose into the dining room, where a hot meal of cottage pie was on her placemat. Mum or Dad had dimmed the lights to make it seem like a special evening. Granny and Granddad were settling into their places and Mum was spooning food onto Dad's plate. Mum seemed to have made quite an effort to make the place look nice; there was a table cloth on the table, which they never normally bothered with, and a jug of pumpkin juice with ice. Granny was dressed almost formally in shiny green robes that highlighted the red that remained in her greying hair, while Grandad, like Dad, looked slightly less casually dressed than usual. Even Hugo had a clean face, though its ruddiness suggested Granny had given it a good scrub. The whole family all turned and smiled at her, and her grandmother stood up, a little slowly but with a lot of enthusiasm.

"Oh, there's my big girl!" she said, gripping Rose's freckled face and giving it a kiss. "Goodness, I will miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Granny." Rose told her, seriously.

"Mum, don't." Dad said. "She's just going to get upset..."

"Oh, she's got no need to be!" Granddad said, while her mum sighed and Hugo giggled while pouring himself some pumpkin juice. "Victoire will take care of you, and Fred and Laura..."

"And Imogen and Natalie..." Granny continued. "And David, he's going into second. I can't believe how old they're all getting...they'll be grown-ups soon, won't they, Arthur, and what will become of us?"

Rose and her Mum sat down at the table, and everyone began to eat.

"I'm NEVER going to grow up, Nanny!" Hugo said, cheerfully, with his mouth full. "Phil and me are going to be kids forever and ever." Phil, or Philip to use his full name, was a year older than Hugo. Hugo's favourite thing in all the world was staying over at his house, Shell Cottage. Everyone laughed at this Peter Pan pledge, including Mum.

"Phil and _I_." she said. Dad and Hugo rolled their eyes. Scenes such as this were common in their household, and Rose felt a miserable surge of affection for her mother.

Seeing that her granddaughter had bowed her head and was moving the food around her plate, Molly Weasley changed the subject.

"Victoire has only got a year left now. She's going to do well in her NEWTs, Bill says."

"Good for Victoire." Dad said. The conversation carried on from there, but Rose listened sparingly as she ate. Apparently Simona was starting her school in Romania, but her parents were so close they could make their own way there. Uncle Charlie was saying that Simona would definitely get into Gryffindor, though, if she went to Hogwarts. Lily had had an accident with a tree branch above her eyebrow, and was so proud of the scar she didn't want Auntie Ginny to Heal it. Uncle Harry was very proud of the family resemblance. Mum had offered Teddy Lupin an internship in her department, which he was considering. Uncle George had given Phil a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes hamper for his birthday in August and havoc the likes of which Shell Cottage had never seen had ensued. It was all very normal, which is what made it so unusually sad.

They all finished dinner in time, and Dad cleared the plates to be washed up. Hugo lead Granny and Granddad into the living room so they could play a game, while Mum and Rose stayed together at the dinner table.

"Rosie..." her mum said. "Hogwarts is nothing to be afraid of. It's the best school in the world...I thought so when I went there, and it's even better now. You know so many people. What are you afraid of?"

"They're my cousins. I want _friends_..."

"Why can't you be friends with Albus?"

"He's a boy, it's not the same."

"I still consider Uncle Harry and your dad my best friends, and they're boys. But I see where you're coming from...it is hard to make friends, I don't think a lot of people realise that. Especially when you're clever, which you certainly are, Rosie."

"I'll pretend to be dumb, then."

"Oh, never do that! You want people to like you for who you are..."

"What if who I am isn't good enough? What if I don't belong? I belong with you guys at home, I don't know if I'll truly fit in anywhere else..."

Mum looked slightly cross. "Rosie, there are children out there who never heard of witches or wizards before recently, except in stories. They have very little idea about any of it. They're not just going to worry about fitting in, they're going to be _terrified_. They're going to need friendly girls like you, Rose, to be strong and help them along. I'm certain you'll make friends. Remember what Dad said about Gryffindors?"

"There is no such thing as a Gryffindor with no friends."

"I mean it!" Dad said, coming into the room with a meaningful swagger. "Some very strong friendships have been formed in Gryffindor. Me, your mum and Harry are one. Then before that, there were the Marauders...the ones you read a book about. And probably loads of others I don't know about. Rosie, come on, you'll be fine."

Rose sighed, and felt tears come down her cheeks. "I'll miss you so much."

"We'll miss you too, but I'm sure you won't even think about us." Dad said.

"I won't ever stop thinking about you! I love you!" she said, her heart aching. Her mum put her arms around her and scolded her dad for his comment. She stroked Rose's long curly hair and finally said.

"What your dad means is that you'll find other people who make you just as happy as we do, and being without us won't seem so bad. You don't forget about your parents really."

"Although I'm sure you'll be happy to forget about Hugo." Dad said, laughing and looking down at her with an expression of tenderness. Rose nodded enthusiastically, and the three of them laughed quietly. "Come on," Dad said. "Let's go and join in the games in the living room."

That evening, Rose hugged Granny and Granddad for the last time in a while. She gave them both a kiss, and told them seriously that she loved them. They were very touched; their grandchildren, they said, didn't usually tell them in words. Rose felt that this was almost a practise goodbye for tomorrow, and it wasn't so bad. For the first time, after they had had so much fun together that evening, she really felt that she would see them again soon. And when she did see them, she'd be coming back from Hogwarts, and already have so many stories to tell them. She smiled at them, face and eyes completely dry, as they walked to the end of their drive, waving, and Apparated away.

Of course, not long after this, she was sent to bed in order to be up bright and early for tomorrow. However, when she got to her bed, her owl had a letter for her.

_Dear Rose,_

_I'm so scared about tommorow. What if I get into Slitherin? Apparently it's full of posh people and they'll probably think I'm rubbish. And the lessons will be really hard, won't they? I don't know any proper magic yet, were we suposed to learn some? I know they didn't say so but I wonder if they expect you to. Rosie, I'm really scared and I'm going to miss my family. James is teesing me about it because I nearly cried when we played Quidditch with Lily for the last time in ages. Although it was really because a Bluger hit me in the arm and it really hurt._

_Rose, can we sit together on the train? I don't want to look lonely, and everyone will be asking me about Dad. Maybe if you stay with me, they'll ask about your Mum and Dad instead. Please? _

_From Al_

Rose laughed. She had forgotten that people would want to talk to her about her mum and dad, and it was strangely gratifying to see the normally confident and cheerful Albus Potter getting nervous about something. After getting into her pyjamas, she settled into bed and wrote a reply letter to her cousin by the light of her The Faeries lamp.

Dear Albus,

I think we're both going to be OK...


End file.
